Jack Black
by Rand0mSmil3z
Summary: The Guardians were a family - Jack knew that better than anyone, being the youngest and newest family member. But one day the Guardians attack him along with their newest member and Jack has somehow been forgotten. Alone and confused, his mind sinks deeper into the nightmare... and deeper into Jack Black. Requested by delenafantasy :D
1. Chapter 1 - Trust

_ Hello everyone! :D I'm sorry that I've been gone for so long; I had a family emergency . My grandpa got cancer and it was really rough for a while, but after intense chemo he beat cancer to a pulp and will be okay. :) My grandpa is awesome 3 So, thanks to everyone who was super supportive and waited patiently for me. You have no idea how much that means to me, so I'll try to make the long (LOOONG!) wait worth it!_

_ Anyway, this is a short chapter. Only the prologue! I'll add the first chapter when I have time (to those of you that already know me, you know what to expect) :) So, I really hope you enjoy it because, after my hiatus, I'm super excited to write it! And that's all I really want to say...Thank you!_

_ Stay awesome beautiful people!_

_ Rand0mSmil3z_

* * *

It started out as a normal day. It _started out _perfectly fine.

Jack tore through the forest as fast as his legs would carry him, but the snow seemed to drag down his feet and the branches whipped past his face like fingers trying not to let him go.

_When did everything go so wrong?_

Jack gritted his teeth, kept on running. He couldn't remember, but why? _Why? _

_ How did...?_

Suddenly something slammed into a tree trunk just inches from his face. With a yelp Jack fell backward, the tip of his staff getting tangled in the branches. Snow fell onto him like falling stars, each dimmer and heavier than the last. For a moment, and only a moment, Jack Frost simply wanted to lay there, to rest. But something stirred inside of him like a beast screaming to be released, a clawing sensation that curled in his thin chest and made his hands shake.

He wanted to live.

Jack's body reacted as him numb mind tried to keep up, and soon he was running again. He could hear _their _footsteps behind him, could practically feel their drive to destroy him. He just stopped by Santoff Clausen, just a small visit, but the next thing he knew _they _attacked him.

_"It's all your fault!" _

Jack raised his head; the white branches above wavered in and out of focus like a heavy fog settled in his sapphire eyes. He didn't know what he did wrong, couldn't _remember. _So all he could ask was, why? Why were the Guardians attacked him? Did his family give him up? Did they realize that he wasn't as good as MiM wanted them to believe? But why now? Why today? Why not tomorrow, or the next day, or never?

_Why?_

Suddenly the ground gave out beneath Jack, and the next thing he knew he was falling into the pale ground. It was a tunnel, a dark and cold tunnel , with ice layering its frost-bitten sides. But Jack didn't care; all that mattered is that he didn't have to run anymore, that he was safe for the moment as he slid down. He could hear the other Guardians shouting above him; North was asking 'ver did he go?' in his Russian accent and Bunny responded 'Well, don't just stand there mate!'. Their voices echoed down the tunnel, echoed down and down and down and _down. . ._

Without warning Jack slammed onto hard ground, bruising his already bruised shoulder, and skidded a good ten feet on ice. He tried to stand, but his legs weren't cooperating, so he simply lay there trying to keep his erratic breathing under control.

_Why?_

He squeezed his eyes shut, as tight as they would shut, and hugged himself hard. The Guardians - Tooth, Bunnymund, North, Sandy - tried to _kill _him. They saw him, and. . . and even though they went through so much together, even though they had _promised _that they would always be together as a _family, _they tried to kill him.

_Why?_

Jack wasn't sure how long he lay in the cold dark, wasn't sure if he fell asleep or stayed awake, and though he wasn't sure how much time had passed in this frozen underground land he knew he had to get up. Something wasn't right, and the more he thought about it the more he was convinced that something was _wrong. _The Guardians wouldn't try to kill him. . . _well, maybe Bunnymund would, _Jack thought, _but not like that! He wouldn't do that!_

Suddenly his pale eyes widened, their blue almost luminous in the shadows. _Maybe it was Pitch? _he wondered. _Yeah. . . yeah, maybe Pitch messed with their minds or something. _Jack stood, feeling a little stronger. His hand clenched around his staff almost desperately. _Yeah. It was definitely Pitch. _He placed a steadying hand on the cavern's frozen wall with his eyes focused on some point in the distance.

_He'll pay. _


	2. Chapter 2 - Blind

_ Okay everyone. So I'm going to be trying something that most of you won't be used to, especially from me. I'll be writing short chapters. HOWEVER, there is a reason for this. Since this story is called Jack Black (think about that for a moment), I want each chapter to emphasize one trait of Jack Frost's that will turn into Jack Black's, so basically how Jack turns into Jack Black and his personality change. :) So, there's a reason for these short chapters._

_ I'll also start giving these chapter some titles. Also, I know longer have any idea how long this will be. Everyone, be sure to thank _delenafantasy _for this glorious, glorious idea. She's awesome. :)_

_ Anyway, I'm so happy you all loved the prologue! Hopefully this chapter will make you just as proud!_

_ Stay awesome!_

_ Rand0mSmil3z_

* * *

The ice cave Jack had fallen in was, like the name suggested, completely frozen over. Spires of pale ice built their way up to the roof like stalagmites while others worked their way down to the ground like stalactites. Jack had plenty of time to sit around in the cave, to explore and to recover. Time didn't exist in this frozen underworld and icy tunnels wove in the earth like a maze. In a sense, the place reminded Jack of Pitch's underground layer, except his was less dark. Instead, the ice glowed a pale blue in the darkness and cast thin shadows on the ground that danced and turned whenever he walked past. His footsteps were barely audible, the slapping of his bare feet a hollow echo that turned away from him.

But Jack realized that there was something _wrong _with this cave, and that was that he had never seen it before. In fact, he didn't remember it at all but whenever he thought about it the sheer _strangeness _of it all seemed to slip away and he was left thinking, of course this was right. It was the way it was. And, just like that, Jack didn't think about it much longer.

What he did think about, however, was Pitch. Not Pitch Black, not the nightmare king, only Pitch. Jack obsessed over him, wove in the king of shadows to every problem he could think of. Before long Jack made it so that all of his problems - the shock of losing his family, the shock of the Guardians trying to kill him, the shock of simply _forgetting_ - all orbited a simple litany: Pitch.

_Pitch would pay. _

...

Jack peered out from the hole in the ground and winced when the sudden bright sunlight illuminated his pale face. The snow shone like the brilliance of diamonds held underneath a flashlight and seemed to burn his blue eyes until he ducked back inside the hole, breathing hard.

He closed his eyes, took a deep breath. _Since when did the sun hurt? _he wondered, confused, then glanced outside once again. He couldn't remember and, the more he thought about it, the more he didn't care. All he knew was that he _had _to go outside, _had _to begin searching for the cause of all his problems. After all, he might go crazy if he had to sit underground in the cold dark for another second.

So Jack forced himself to crawl out of the frozen hole in the ground, his frozen cave and frozen home like a bat leaving the dark for the first time. He blinked at the blinding light, his eyes watering from the sheer intensity of it all, before they finally adjusted and he took his first step.

The snow was light and fluffy, moving underneath his feet to make up for his weight, though the white powder didn't have to move very far. The forest was just as Jack remembered it; the air was frigid, the snow piled up on the branches like frosting, the trees themselves seemingly lonely though they were surrounded by thousands of their own kind. Jack raised his head to the sky; the clouds were just as white and just as perfect, the sky was a shade of blue that matched his own.

Jack closed his eyes, glanced at his hands. For a moment he couldn't remember why he was outside, why he had this drive to _do _something while he was surrounded by the painfully lonely forest.

But then he remembered, and when he raised his head his sapphire eyes shown. Within moment the wind gathered around him and picked him up, picked it up with the painful gentleness like a mother picks up her child, and Jack was lifted weightlessly into the air.


	3. Chapter 3 - Reason

_So this story will be updated weekly, mostly because I'm going to start focusing on my own novel now. I'm just under 150 pages, so I'm about halfway done :) I'm seriously hoping that I'll get done by the end of the month! Also, the second semester of school is threatening to give me a painful death. _

_ Yep. :) By the way everyone, since I can't find the chapter OR the story that I posted this, I'm going to put it here: Commissions have CLOSED. Thank you everyone for your requests! I'll try my best to get through them all! It might take a while though. _

_ OH! And pay attention to the names of all of the chapters. They're important._

_ Anyway, here's chapter 3. It's pretty trippy. Confusing, possibly, but this is a mind of madness. But mostly pretty trippy :D Enjoy!_

* * *

Jack needed answers. Nothing made sense; everything in his mind was jumbled together like two sides of an army that couldn't tell each other apart. He couldn't _remember_. The sky was the same shade of blue but it seemed farther away, the snow was the same color of white but it was no longer familiar. Jack, flying through the air, glanced at it hands. They were pale, clenched around his wooden staff as if it were a lifeline, the knuckles pure white from the effort. They were his hands.

But they weren't the same. They were completely unfamiliar to him, like he was staring at them through a dream.

_A dream. _

Jack's sapphire eyes widened. Suddenly the wind wasn't familiar either, a stranger in a strange world. He twisted midair, mouth open but no sound coming out, trying to get away. The wind - the wind was going to kill him, just like everyone else. Friends were just enemies who haven't attacked you yet, enemies were things to be feared.

The wind, without warning, dropped Jack. First he felt the weightlessness of freefall; it was a feeling he was accustomed to. Then that sickening feeling churned his stomach and flew up into his throat, and he was vaguely aware that this wasn't good at all, that falling down to the ground _this fast _and _this high _wasn't the best thing. But, for some reason, he wasn't afraid. Somewhere deep inside, he knew that he was going to be -

_- Snap. _A branch broke in half. Snow flew into the air like fireworks; white, tasteless fireworks. Jack slammed against the ground, breathing hard, eyes wide, hands trembling. It took a while, but he finally managed to sit up. His staff landed a little farther away from him; with shaking fingers, he picked it up.

"The wind has abandoned you, you know," said a voice behind him. Jack's eyes snapped wide open and he spun around, preparing for a fight.

He wasn't prepared for this.

Pitch Black peered down at him from one of the branches, face drawn - not in a sneer - but in an uncharacteristic sympathetic frown. "How did that happen?" he asked. For once, the King of Nightmares sounded sincere.

_How did that happen?_

"It's none of your business," Jack snarled. Frost gathered on the tip of his staff and threatened to burst out and immerse Pitch Black in snow, threatened to bury the world in ice.

Pitch blinked in surprise, then smiled. Not a sneer - a smile. A sad, pitiful smile. "Old Man Frost," he said, "your heart of ice hasn't changed much after all."

Jack's eyes widened; heart of _what? _Ice? He may have control over the cold, but that didn't mean that he was made up of -

_No. _

Jack Frost's sapphire eyes narrowed to slits. Maybe that was what is was, that he had been fighting the cold feeling for too long. He was a spirit of winter, not one of those tipsy preppy summer spirits that soaked up too much sunshine. Snow melted under the sun; melted during the days.

Why should he be a part of it?

"Pitch," Jack said, lowering his staff slightly, "we could make our own world, you know. A world that's cold and dark, perfect for things like us."

Pitch's yellow eyes widened, then resumed their general kind look. He jumped down from the branch and onto the snow on the ground, though he didn't leave behind any footprints. "You don't understand, Jack. I'm not like you."

That line, it was oddly familiar. Where had he heard that line before?

_No, _Jack thought, _it doesn't matter. Nothing matters, nothing nothing nothing..._

"Aren't we both on our own!?" Jack shouted. "You think that anyone cares about you?"

"I have plenty of people," Pitch shouted back, "unlike you, you goes around blurring the landscape, getting travelers lost, freezing them to the ground!"

Jack flinched; something inside of him screamed that he would _never _do that, would _never _kill someone. But the other half of him felt oddly satisfied with the accusation, whispered that it was just the way it was. It wasn't _his _fault; it was the nature of life. It was nature in general, not _Jack. _Never Jack.

"The world will never accept you or I," Jack muttered through clenched teeth.

Pitch's eyes grew sad for a moment, then he said, "If I go with you, Jack, I'll be feared. That's not for me."

Something was wrong, horribly wrong. Every pore in Jack's body screamed about that _wrongness. _The difference was that one half shouted that Pitch was wrong; the other half screamed of the wrongness for a completely different reason.

"The Guardians are with me," Pitch continued.

_Wrong. _

"They'll never let me down," he said.

_Wrong. _Jack squeezed his eyes shut. _Wrong wrong wrong wrong... _Something suddenly clicked in place, like everything that didn't make sense suddenly _did. _Of course Pitch wouldn't join him; he was the Guardian of the Night. Jack was a nobody, a nothing, a name no one bothered to even remember - Jack Black. But they had both come from the same nonexistent background, the same world that the nameless come from.

"They'll leave you, you know," Jack smirked. That half of him, the half that screamed that something wasn't right, faded away to a small, easily-ignored voice in the back of his mind. "They'll leave you forever. You're not a _Guardian, _Pitch. You're a nightmare."

Pitch turned to him, black sand gathered in his palm, and threw it. Jack smiled and seamlessly slammed the butt of his staff into the ground. The sand, inches away from crushing him, froze in place as a spiked cascade of black ice.

* * *

_Confused yet? :D GOOD. As IF I was going to tell you all of the secrets in the first couple of chapters!_

_ Stay awesome, _

_ Rand0mSmil3z_


	4. Chapter 4 - Sanity

_I'm sooo sooorrrryyyy! D: I'm so sorry of the lateness! I got my wisdom teeth removed last weekend so that's one reason, and the second is that I'm beginning to procrastinate. A lot. BUT I bought the movie yesterday so my motivation has somewhat returned :D _

_ Now, I would do some shoutouts but I kinda replied to most of them and forgot which ones I did reply to o_o' Sorry everyone. But, I just want to let you all know that I read every single one of your reviews and their all just about the best things ever. :) Those are super motivating haha :D_

_ Anyway. I did read a lot of reviews about what the haystack is going on. So, I'll tell you. _

_ JACK IS GOING EVIL. Every chapter title represents something that he lost; last chapter was titled 'Reason', so Jack lost some of that. The first chapter was Blind, so Jack lost his light and etc etc etc (__E__nd of __T__hinking __C__apacity xD). _

_ So, I don't want to give away much more than that. Hope it helped. _

_ Onto chapter 4 :)_

_..._

Jack grinned, an unfriendly grin, and lightly jumped onto the sculpture of ice. Black sand was embedded into the pale blue, creating a montage of dark glimmers underneath the sapphire skin. He personally liked it; after all, it represented everything that could have been. It represented just how wall _dark _and _cold _went along together.

Below, Pitch stood on the snow like a black splattered paint on a white canvass. He was breathing hard and glaring at Jack with pure, raw hatred. Jack's smile only widened; it was perfect. That look, that posture, that _hatred... _it was all incredibly, incredibly perfect.

"You know," Jack said softly, "you don't have to live your life invisible, just a shadow underneath the bed." Pitch's yellow eyes, framed with silver, widened. Jack pressed on. "You can be _believed _in. You can be _seen."_

Pitch narrowed his eyes. "How?"

Jack laughed. "By joining me, of course," he said, hopping off of the ice. No wind caught him or softened the landing; no, the wind had abandoned this creature it didn't recognize. Jack Black, however, didn't notice at all. "You and I," Jack continued, "would be the most powerful spirits in the world." When Pitch didn't reply, he added, "After all, we want the same thing. To be _believed _in. Just think!" He cast his sapphire eyes into the sky above, that blue sky brimmed with endless possibilities. "You and I, filling the world with cold and snow and an endless landscape of white, not to mention-"

"-frost?" Pitch cut in, eyes narrowed.

Jack glanced to him and smirked. "And Pitch Black too, of course."

But Pitch only shook his head. "No," he said, then repeated, "No. If I went with you, children would fear me." He turned away. "And I don't want that."

Jack's eyes widened. _No. _He was losing him, losing this one chance, losing it losing it _losing _it-

"Is that it?" he whispered. An emotion colder than the ice he wielded filled his sapphire eyes. "Are you just going to walk away?"

Pitch glanced at him over his shoulder. "Yes," he replied simply, then faded into the shadow of a nearby tree. Jack's eyes widened for a moment - he had forgotten about Pitch's infernal ability - before the icy cold set in again.

He _hated. _

Jack turned away, back towards the deeper part of the forest. Snow covered the trees and turned a pale blue as the sun began to set. The snow glistened scarlet, the sky was stained a rosy pink. Jack Black tore through the forest; for some reason, his stomach hurt. No, it burned with a fire hotter than the lava that veined underneath the earth.

How alone he was. Not even the trees were alone, nor the birds or insects that survived in this cold, harsh climate. The stars had their companion in the night sky. The sun had the moon. The sky had the clouds. The earth had mountains, forests, deserts.

But what about Jack?

Where was his friend?

Why was he alone?

Why?

Why?

_Why?_

"Why?!" he screamed at the moon, a mere sliver on the horizon. He jumped up on a tree, higher and higher, until nothing stood between him and the sky. His breathes came as short huffs, his hand trembled around the staff.

But there was no answer. Just like last time, the time before, and the time before that. Silence filled the air and weighed him down, tore the snow from the trees and crushed his bones into the earth. Not even the moon, his creator, would talk to him. Converse with him. Let him know that Jack existed, at least to somebody.

Jack turned away, his sapphire eyes bright and cold.

How he _hated. _

...

_Snippet of Jack Black's life, once again. I promise to update more often; this week was a pain for me. A major, epic pain. And this upcoming week will be a pain as well. Why? Scholarship essays. Gah. I'd rather stick a pencil in my eye._

_ Anyway, have an amazing day everyone! Thank you for reading and I love you all 3_

_ Stay awesome, _

_ Rand0mSmil3z _

_PS- I'm not sure if I said this before so I'm gonna say it now - Commissions are CLOSED. Doesn't apply to my give-me-fanart-and-get-a-garanteed-request rule though. Also, what are beta testers? 0_0_

_idk_


	5. Chapter 5 - Care

_Hey guys! Quick note. I'm reaaaaallly surprised that no one asked me about Jamie yet or, more specifically, Jamie's reaction to the new-and-not-so-improved Jack. I'm debating whether I should add that little segment now since NO ONE said a WORD about it..._

_ ;)_

_ Nah. Just kidding. I'm not THAT evil. :) I'm sure some of you were thinking about it._

_ Onto chapter five!_

* * *

It was cold.

Jack had never truly noticed the cold before. He always felt the cold so he just got used to it. It was normal, that constant cold that numbed his pale skin and frosted his breath every time he breathed. But now he felt a different kind of cold, as if an icicle was lodged into his chest. A jagged, jagged piece of ice that chilled him to the core.

Jack curled up in the tree branch, accidently pushing off some snow with the motion, and shivered.

_It's cold. _

He wasn't sure how long he stayed in the tree. Though, he didn't really care. He spent over three hundred years, not living, but existing. What was another day to him?

_Nothing. _

And just like that, Jack began to care less and less. What _was _another day to him? Did it really matter what he did? After all, in a couple hundred years, everyone he knows now will be _dead. _The only people left would be North, the Easter Kangaroo, Tooth, Sandy, and Pitch.

_That's it._

_ No one else. _

Jack slowly opened his sapphire eyes, but they had grown darker. No longer did they gleam like pieces of the sky. Now they shone like pieces of deep water; frozen, forgotten, timeless. He slowly raised himself from the branch, slowly turned his head to the pale horizon. The sun was just beginning to set... or was it rising? Jack didn't know. At one time, he had the vague sense that he would have gone to find out, to explore, to make another endless day pass a little quicker.

But now? Jack Black didn't even bat his pale eyelashes. Time just continued forward whether he liked it or not, and he couldn't do anything about it. It didn't matter if he controlled the cold. What could the cold do? Save lives?

_No. _

A small smile appeared on Jack's pale lips.

_Cold kills. _

Snow fluttered into the air as Jack jumped, fingers splayed towards the sky. Within moments the sky began to fall and a soft breeze picked him up. It was an alien breeze, a lonely breeze, a _cold _breeze, but Jack didn't care. Within moments he was flying to nowhere, to anywhere. The sky seemed to get a little brighter.

It was cold.

After a time of aimlessly soaring the sky, Jack saw it. Even as he watched, tiny pinpricks of light gave way to the rising sun. Within moments Jack landed gracefully, his eyes dark eyes squinted and cold. His hate hadn't disappeared, and even now he felt it bubble within him.

People. People were _everywhere. _People were walking down the street with their dogs. People were driving in their metal husks they called cars. People walked down the sidewalk holding papers or latched onto their loved ones. People were _everywhere. _

Jack frowned and raised his staff; for some reason, it also seemed darker, like charcoal. _What if I-_

_ -_and suddenly his insides exploded with pain. Jack gasped as someone passed right through him, gasped as the sheer weight of feeling invisible crashed down upon him. It hurt; oh, how it hurt. He got the sense he had felt this before. He got the sense that he hated it just as much then as he did now.

_And the people just kept on walking. _

That icicle logged inside of Jack seemed to dig inside of him a little deeper. He raised his staff, raised it high, and slammed the butt of it against the ground. Frost exploded and spread across the sidewalk like fire. People slipped. People cried out as they fell. Papers flew. Cars crashed with squealing tires and panicking mothers who flung out one arm to protect their child sitting in the front seat. Someone pulled out a device that Jack knew as a cell phone and called 911.

Jack took a deep breath. It wasn't enough. The icicle still dug inside of him. He was still cold. It still _hurt. _

Jack turned and began to run. The breeze ignored him so his footsteps replied. He tried to dodge the people but even he was capable of slipping here and there. His arm would pass through someone, his shoulder, his staff. No one would notice... no one but him.

Suddenly someone pointed to the sky, shouting about pretty lights. Jack turned; an aurora. North must have noticed what just happened. _How? _Jack wondered, but then he didn't care. The Guardians would soon come, probably to fight with him. Maybe try to kill him.

_Maybe they'll notice me. _

...

Jack ran, ran until he found a statue. At one time it had been a fountain; now it was just a hollowed out casket of metal. He jumped up on top of it and took a deep breath. The pain seemed to have lessened slightly, and as he turned around he idly thought that there should be a couch nearby.

_Which doesn't make any sense, _Jack scowled, and quickly shoved that thought aside. _No one would be stupid enough to put a couch outside in the middle of nowhere. _Suddenly his scowl deepened. _Well, maybe there might be..._

"Jack!"

A childlike voice snapped Jack back to the present. When he turned around he saw a small boy with brown hair and a missing front tooth running towards him.

_No, _Jack realized. _Running _at _me. _

"Jack!" the boy shouted again. He was smiling, the brightest smile Jack had ever seen. "Jack, you've come back! Remember me?" The kid threw his sled to the ground. "I'm Jamie, see? I've gotten a _ton _taller, so maybe you wouldn't recognize me but-!" The kid rambled on.

But Jack Black only frowned. _Who?_

* * *

_ You guys. Be prepared for feels. In fact, I suggest that you should have stopped reading around the last chapter. Poor Jack is falling down the downward spiral of despair. Can Jamie snap him out of it? Speaking of which, what the haystack happened to Jack in the first place? And one more thing... WHY CAN JAMIE REMEMBER JACK? Think about that. Why?  
_

_ ..._

_ Stay awesome, _

_ Rand0mSmil3z_

_ PS- BY THE WAY YOU GUYS. I JUST finished the twentieth chapter of my *real* book! :D I'm hoping for twenty more, and *maybe* four hundred pages? Maybe more? Maybe a little more than a little more?_


	6. Chapter 6 - Fear

_So I had a bad day :( A gnarly, gnarly bad day. But, on the bright side, that only means that tomorrow is going to be much better because it definitely can't be worse :)_

_ANYWAY. So sorry I didn't upload during the weekend! I was busy. College stuff. Trust me, I'd rather be doing this because college stuff is by no means fun stuff. In fact, it's awful. I'm happy that it's over despite the complete crash landing. _

_*strangled cry*_

_Anyway, this chapter is going to be confusing; in fact, I didn't realize how confusing this story was until I got some reviews asking for clarification. Truth be told, I wanted to make it obscure but not THAT obscure. But whatever. I'll add a little thing at the end to hopefully help sort out the mess :) Hopefully that'll help!_

_Thank you everyone for all of the support! 3 3 3_

* * *

A child.

A child was speaking to him.

The mere thought was incomprehensible, _inconcievable. _No one could see him. No one. He was alone, always alone, and that was the way it was always going to be.

Lonely.

"Jack!" The boy was now tugging on his sleeve and looking up at him with the brightest smile. "Jack, wanna see my snowfort? Wanna see it?!"

But Jack didn't hear; all he could notice was two hand the clung onto his arm as if they were hanging onto the world, onto a tiny thread that could snap in an instant. He half-expected those thin hands to pass right through him just like all the others. But they didn't and Jack had to wonder, _why?_

Suddenly something flickered inside of him. "Can you... can you see me?" Jack whispered.

The boy's smile seemed to freeze on his face, but then in a moment he was bobbing his head up and down. "Well, _duh," _he replied as if it was the most natural thing in the world, then used one of his hands to lift up his lower lip. "How else do you think I got this hole in my face?"

Jack's eyes widened as images he didn't recognize but _knew _flashed in his mind.

A sled.

_Don't worry kid, you're going to be okay!_

A couch.

_That wasn't the tooth fairy, that was __**me**__!_

A road.

_What does a guy have to do to get a little __**attention **__around here?!_

"Who are you?" Jack demanded, tugging away his arm. His breathing was too fast, his heart beating too rapidly. How he _hurt, _how he _ached. _

The kid's smile faltered. "Wh-what do you mean? It's me, Jamie, remember? I mean, I know I look a little bit different and all, and I guess it _has _been a year, but don't you remember? I _believe _in you."

Jack couldn't breathe for a moment. _Believe. _After all this time, after 300 years of searching, it just... happened? Someone just believed in him now for the first time since the Dark Age-

Suddenly his head hurt. No, not hurt; that was too kind of a word. It felt like a railroad spike was being hammered into his head, like his mind was beginning to splinter apart. The thing was... Jack was afraid of what could slip through the cracks.

"_Don't touch me!" _Jack Black shouted suddenly, and with a single effortless leap he was on the other side of the road. Somehow his hands were already around his head to somehow squeeze it all back together. His eyes burned, watered, hurt and suddenly he felt gross, disgusting, _dirty._ His hands fell limp to his sides and he looked up at the sky, that blue sky that seemed impossibly far away.

He remembered now. He remembered, but now he almost wished he hadn't. A silent, icy tear somehow escaped his sapphire eyes and ran down his pale cheek.

"What have a done?" he whispered.

"More to the point, Jack," said a twisted voice behind him, "what have _you _done?"

Jack Frost spun and suddenly there was Pitch. His arms were outstretched, his pale eyes rimmed with a ghostly yellow glinting in a twisted smirk.

"What have you done to me?" Jack whispered. He felt broken, like all of the horror that he committed weighed down on him and _stained _him. It was ironic, really; he, Jack Frost, bringer of pure white snow was stained and became something _evil. _

Jack shivered. And worse, he _liked _it.

"I know your fear, Jack," Pitch whispered. He was inches away from him now, one slender hand gently caressing his pale face.

Jack slapped that hand away. "No, you don't."

Pitch laughed. "But I do, Jack. People's fear - it's the one thing I always know."

Suddenly Jack's mind splintered again, threatened to shatter. "_Shut up!" _he screamed, then jumped up into the air and twisted, staff in hand. In a fluid motion a blast of frozen air flew towards Pitch, who easily brushed aside the frost and threw a ball of black sand. The wind pushed Jack aside, twisted him, brought him closer to the ground.

_The blue sky seemed impossible to reach. _

Ice shards flew. The boy had disappeared; why and where, Jack didn't know. He didn't want to know. In fact, he didn't want to know _anything _anymore. He just wanted to disappear, to fade away and be forgotten.

"Don't worry, Jack," Pitch Black smiled. "We're the same, you and I."

Jack opened his mouth for a scathing comeback, but none came. For the first time he realized that maybe, just maybe, Pitch was right. He gently landed on the ground, defeated. _Maybe we are the same... _

_Jack, I'm scared!_

_No, no, we're going to be okay... we're going to have fun instead!_

_No we're not!_

_Would I trick you?_

_You always play tricks!_

_Hah.. well, not - not this time. You're going to be fine. We're... we're going to have fun instead! We're gonna play hopscotch, like we always play. It's as easy as one, two, three. Ready? One... Two..._

"You're nothing like me," Jack whispered, then slammed the butt of his staff onto the ground. Blue frost exploded into the air, blocking out the sun with a sapphire hue. Ice exploded, cracked the sidewalk, sent Pitch Black flying away with a strangled cry. Jack opened his eyes.

_Three._

* * *

_Epic ending, jah? _

_Anyway, here is my rant that'll hopefully clear things up. It'll be a Q&A thing. _

_Q: Why the haystack can Jamie see Jack?_

_A: that's because Jamie is Jack's light; he's the first person to ever see Jack and that's been engrained into his mind. Plus, I see Jamie as sort of Jack's light; when Jack had pretty much given up on ever being seen again, Jamie snapped him out of it... and might have saved Jack from turning Pitch Black. ;)_

_Q: What just happened?_

_A: THAT'S A WONDERFUL QUESTION. Jack was talking to Jamie, Jamie triggered something in Jack's messed-up mind and Jack regained his lost memories / himself in the process. That's when Pitch comes and, if you got the whole flashback déjàvu (how do you spell that?!) thing going on, that's good. Those a direct movie quotes straight from the movie and hopefully they got the gears in your mind turning. After all, I'm not gonna give out all of my story's secrets so easily ;) not until the end, that is. _

_Q: Where are the Guardians?_

_A: not telling 3 They'll appear at the end which, by the way, is very soon. I'm talking one or two more chapters soon. :( :( The end is upon us..._

_3 you all , thank you for ALL of the feedback (seriously, if it wasn't for you reviewers, no one would have gotten this. Pat on the back and cookies to you guys!) , and all of the support!_

_Stay awesome, _

_Rand0mSmil3z _


	7. Chapter 7 - Nightmares

_*EDIT: I changed the story summary_

_OMIGOSH YOU GUYS I'M SO SORRY FOR THE WAIT! D: _

_Anyway, here's what has been going on!_

_Anyway, to those of you who don't follow me on deviantart (Rand0mSmil3z) or the deviantart group (Humanity-Eternity), I just want to let you all know that I'm officially enrolled in college! Getting there was rough; had to compete for another scholarship (WHICH I WON BY THE WAY, all thanks to the books I published! :D) and they even mentioned me (not my name of course) in the congratulatory introduction speech on admitted student day! That was way awesome. I had a moment in the back of the gym xD Speaking of which, I had my first interview today. It's super short, just a 30 second blerb of my first book, but omigosh. It sucked. Even second of it was awful. I mean, I'm 17. I'm a complete derp in front of a camera. My brother making stupid faces in the background to make me smile (since I somehow lost that ability at that exact moment) didn't help. It's probably full of strange faces of me trying not to laugh._

_But oh well! Back to college, the trouble was that they thought I was married (I am in no way a Mrs.) and then they got my social security number wrong. That freaked me out, hence no Jack Black._

_Speaking of the story, this chapter is going to be pretty long. Why? I'm ending it right here. I feel awful for making you all wait what - 4 weeks? 5? - for an update so this is all the lost time bundled into one. I haven't written this story in a while, so hopefully it'll flow seamlessly together. _

_Once again, thanks for waiting so patently for me. :) Enjoy the chapter!_

* * *

Pitch Black sneered at Jack from across the snow, his features hushed in the gentle snowfall. Jack's piercing blue eyes stared right back, their sapphire hiding his true emotions in stone. His fragile, fragile heart - like the surface of a frozen pond from so long ago - was cracking. Breaking. Shattering.

Once Pitch had told him that he was a failure, that the Guardians would never be able to accept him. Pitch was right. Jack had done horrible things, horrible things he couldn't explain away or even understand _why he did it. _

_ Maybe that's why the Guardians attacked me, _he thought, his small heart breaking in two. _Maybe they saw it coming. Maybe they knew it all along. _

Gentle snow fell from the sky and brushed against his face like gentle fingers. The temporary comfort was shattered what Pitch Black was suddenly running up towards him, black sand morphing into a huge scythe. Jack's eyes widened and he tucked; the sharp midnight blade brushed against his snow-white hair. He shivered; he could practically feel the malice emanating from the sharp edge.

"Can you hear it, Jack?" Pitch shouted, slamming the scythe on the ground. Black sand rippled onto the ground, coating the white with black. "Can you hear their screams of all the people you hurt?"

Jack inwardly flinched. _Screams. _He instantly remembered when he turned the roads to ice and watched, watched with a smile as cars slammed into each other, rolled and flipped down the street to hit anyone in its way. A mother blocked her child. An old man fell into the road right when a car came; the last thing Jack saw was the white of the man's eyes as he saw death rushing towards him at 60mph. How the screams reached the sky those seconds. Looking back, the seconds seemed to drag on for years.

Pitch smiled and cocked his head slightly. "So you do, don't you? You remember it all."

"You did something to me!" Jack shouted back. "You - !"

"I control _nightmares, _Jack," Pitch interrupted, "and nightmares haunt sleep. They can't turn a person evil. That -" Pitch added with a smile, "-was entirely you."

Jack felt like he swallowed ice; not _his _ice but shards of ice that ripped his throat to shreds on their way down. "You're wrong." His voice wavered. That wasn't good. He was supposed to sound strong and confident now so that, just maybe, he would actually believe it. He repeated, "You're wrong." It came out better; not perfect, but better.

Yet Pitch only laughed, unaware of the pain he was inflicting on the winter spirit. "_I'm _wrong?" he asked. "Tell me _Jack, _what have I done wrong?"

Jack swallowed thickly, the ice cutting deeper. He didn't have an answer. That wasn't right; Jack _always _had an answer. He _always _knew what to say, whether it was tossing comebacks with Bunnymund or comforting Jamie when -

_Jamie. _

"Where's Jamie?" Jack demanded. "He was here a second ago and -"

Pitch's smile widened. "I think you would know better than anyone."

"What-"

Suddenly they weren't in the park anymore but in the forest, standing on a pond. There was a hole in the ice. Sophie was there wearing ice-skates, her eyes round with her too-big beanie falling on her head. Jack turned to the direction she was staring and felt his heart, his breaking heart, freeze solid.

There was a hole in the ice.

Jack could hear Pitch whisper, "It could have happened to anyone." But Jack was already running, running towards the hole in the ice with his heart in his throat and his staff falling to the ground and his mind repeating, _He fell, he fell, he fell, he fell, he fell, he fell..._

Behind him, Sophie began to scream. Pitch's laughter hung in the air. "It could have happened to anyone. _Why you, Jack?" _he sneered, repeating a question Jack asked himself so many times. "It should be, _Why not you?"_

"Jamie!" Jack was on his hands and knees, screaming at the frigid water that gently lapped against the jagged ice. He could see a tuff of brown hair as light reflected off of it in gentle arcs. "Jamie!"

"Why won't you go in, Jack?" Pitch whispered, suddenly at Jack's side. He placed a slender hand on Jack's shoulder. "Why _can't _you go it?"

Jack tried. He really did. He tried to force himself in the water, tried to tell himself that he was immortal and wouldn't drown. But now that his memories were back, the thought of his head submerged in the dark liquid terrified him. What if it happened again? What if he couldn't control his ice and the top would freeze up, and then he would be stuck there forever? What if it happened again and he forgot everything?

But what if Jamie died while he only watched?

That thought alone somehow got Jack into the water.

The first thing he realized that he wasn't cold, but his lungs screamed for air anyway. He resisted the urge to claw his way to the surface and instead kept his vision focused on a small blur in the distance. He could dimly see out a colorful scarf in the dark water and stretched out his hand to grab him until something brushed against his foot. Jack cried out, bubbles of precious air drifting to the surface, and felt his power well inside of him until he realized that it was only a fish.

Only a fish.

Lungs burning, Jack reached out and grabbed Jamie. His eyes were cold, mouth half open, skin pale and cheeks white instead of a rosy pink. Jack felt the bottom of the lake and felt moss squish between his toes, a sensation that sent shivers down his spine, and he kicked out, following the bubbles to the surface.

Then suddenly hit against something hard. Panic sunk in as he realized that he couldn't find the hole. He lost it. It all looked the same; the ice blended with the sky, the water blurred the edges of the cracks.

Jack panicked, lungs burning to the point where he couldn't take it anymore, with Jamie limp in his arms. He couldn't help it. He gasped for air, but only felt water being sucked back in. Jack choked, losing consciousness, yet unable to die.

Pitch's laughter echoed in the water. He won. He won and he knew it.

Jack feebly stretched out his hand towards the surface. He tried to kick out, to swim, but they felt heavy. He tried anyway. It hurt. He choked on water. He swam. Pale fingers brushed against cold ice as he blindly groped about with one arm wrapped around Jamie.

His mind thought back to the Guardians, to North and Bunny and Tooth and Sandy. He secretly made up an entire family to replace the one he no longer had. North was his father; Jack would never tell him of course, but he liked how North always seemed to take the time to be with him. Like when they first met; North showed him what a Center was and helped Jack find his own without him even asking. Tooth acted like how Jack pictured a mom would act; she was always there for him and always willing to help... especially when it came to dental hygiene. Bunny was like the annoying older brother; there to pick on you and there to always have your back in a fight. Sandy was like a grandpa; old, wise, and still managed to speak the loudest even without a voice.

It was strange, actually. It was almost as if Jack could hear their voices right now, whispering to him, talking to him, worrying about him. Pitch's voice was fading away and the pale ice seemed brighter now, somehow a bit warmed. Jamie, once still in his arms, moved slightly.

Maybe this nightmare was beginning to end.

* * *

North turned to Bunny. "Thees is not normal," he said with a tinge of a Russian accent. "I tell you it is not normal, but you listen? _No."_

"Clam it," Bunny replied, peering over the bed. "Now, how long did you say that Jack has been asleep?"

North thought for a moment. "Eh, three days. Give or take a few."

Tooth sighed. _"North."_

"Fine fine. Five. But I thought that eet was simply teenage sleeping habits," he argued. "I meen, I've seen many children through my days and let me tell you, they can sleep _forever."_

"Well, not literally!" Bunny nearly shouted. He couldn't believe it. He knew that North lived in the North Pole 364 out of the 365 days out of the entire year, but he couldn't believe that he could be such a _numbskull_. "So, tell me again; when did this happen?"

"Right after we got back from dee battle with Pitch," North replied. "Jack said that he was tired from dee battle and _poof. _Down he went. Phil, my yeti, carried Jack to dees room and he's been sleeping ever since."

"I should have been here," Tooth lamented. Sandy nodded his head in agreement, then moved closer to Jack. He knew that the boy was having a nightmare, but the manifest content was hidden from him. It was as if a barrier was around Jack's thoughts, but it didn't feel like Pitch created it. It was almost as if Jack didn't want to let anyone into his mind, which begged the question where he learned how to do that. But, then again, Jack had been on his own for four hundred years. Maybe blocking yourself from the world came naturally after going through such loneliness.

"But North,I told you to call me during an emergency." Bunny scowled. " Jack falling asleep ain't an emergency, mate. The kid is tired. Let'im sleep."

"But 'ee has been like dees for several days!" North argued, then turned to Tooth. "And dees is a emergency, right Tooth?"

Tooth furiously bobbed his head up and down in agreement, then moved to hover over Jack. She loved the way his skin was so pale and smooth, almost as if he had been cut from marble. The first time she saw Jack Frost was after the yeti's tossed him out from their red bag. He looked so irritated and upset back then, and Tooth wondered if he was truly made to be a Guardian. But, after the battle with Pitch, no doubt was left in her mind. In fact, she come to love the way Jack smiled with that crooked smile of his, or the way he frowned when he didn't like something - the same way he frowned when an elf came up to him holding a firecracker. She especially loved his teeth; so naturally pearly white, and she couldn't help but wonder what they would look like if Jack actually took the time to take care of them. They looked perfect with his smiles.

But, now that he's sleeping, she wouldn't get to see them again. _That _was an emergency.

Suddenly Bunny turned to North. "Ey. Sandy. Wake'im up."

Sandy scowled and pointed to his head, where a moon, angry face, stars, and several other icons were exploding in golden sand.

"Who cares if he'll be a grump when he wakes up," Bunny said, rolling his eyes. "Look mate; North called us all here because there was an emergency; Jack took a nap. Well, let's just wake him up shall we?" When Sandy didn't reply, Bunny scowled and said, "Well, if you ain't gonna, I will."

* * *

_I have to get Jamie out of here. _

It had been several minutes after all but the thing was, Jack didn't know how. In fact, it was a wonder that he wasn't unconscious yet. The dark water stirred around him and tussled his white air, but no matter how many times he pressed his hand against the ice, it wouldn't go away. He couldn't find the hole in the lake either, and though his body ached to just give up his mind screamed that he couldn't. Not yet. Not yet. Not yet.

He squeezed his eyes shut. _Help me. _

Suddenly it felt as if someone was lifted him out of the water, almost as if someone scooped him up with massive hands. He closed his eyes as he broke through the surface of the ice and gasped for air when a gust of wind brushed against his face. He drifted in the air for a few moment, gasping and choking up lake water, before he was gently set back down on his feet. Jamie stirred once again and opened his eyes - another miracle. Jack blinked his sapphire eyes as water streamed down his face.

Miracles were happening a lot today.

"Jamie," Jack whispered, throat raw. "Are you okay?"

Jamie nodded. "Yeah," he whispered. But suddenly Jack wasn't seeing Jamie anymore. He was seeing himself through his eyes; brown eyes stared back at him and wet brown hair fell limp over a tan forehead.

"Do you regret dying?" his other half asked.

Jack's mind effortless accepted what was happening; Sophie and Jamie had long disappeared from his mind. "I did," he replied, "but not anymore."

Jackson smiled, then closed his eyes and suddenly turned to white snow, white snow that blew away with the slightest gust of wind. Jack watched it blow away feeling a strange calm set in place, almost as if all of the broken fragments inside of him were being put back in place one by one. He leaned back onto the snow, his pale hand wrapping against the hard wood of his staff.

Stars danced in the sky. He watched them flicker for a moment, wondering if every star was a wish pinned against the night, before he took a deep breath of cold mountain are and closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, familiar faces stared back at him. Bunnymund was holding his fist and looking quite pleased of himself while Tooth shouted at him. North had a pained look on his face that melted away when he saw Jack. Within moments big, warm arms were wrapped around his slender frame and he could hear words repeated over and over again in his ear, but they were in Russian so Jack couldn't understand them. But, that didn't matter. Nothing mattered - he was home.

Jack closed his eyes as emotion covered him like a warm blanket.

The nightmare was over.

* * *

_This is the last chapter of Jack Black. Yes, this entire story is set in a nightmare - hence all of the random stuff. Makes a little more sense now, huh? Kudos (Coodos? Koo-dohs?) to those of you who figured it out! I was completely impressed - especially since this particular person didn't know English very well! :D_

_Anyway, special thanks to everyone who stuck with this story to the very end... even though I'm four weeks late on this update. =_=' A thousand sorry's, and I hope this extended chapter made up for it. In fact, there were about three chapters in here broken into 6 chapter-length segments... if you want a comparison. xD_

_Anyway, big hugs to everyone who read this story! I can't thank you enough for your support during the college process! Officially enrolled! _

_Stay awesome (and I mean it, you lovely people you), _

_Rand0mSmil3z_


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